Get into the van, kiddo.

[captaincatblock]

[Peace is a funny thing. It's been teased and denied for so long that now that it's happening, it's almost weird. He'd missed most of the drama with the princess and her traitorous Terran Knight -- not that he's fully convinced of it, but if it gains them this peace, then he won't question it -- but he had been returned to his kin as Earth's first peace offering.]

[Kuroo hadn't been too happy about that, hadn't even had the time to say good bye to Tsukki after being whisked away by a couple of generals and then thrown into political chaos. But he had endured it, because he knew that eventually, the princess would get to the small issue of Kuroo's kataphrakt and how he intends to spend his time on Earth. He could be a diplomat, he'd offered, or teach his fellow Versians about Terrans, since he's learned a lot. Anything, he had added meaningfully, if he allowed him to keep his landing castle close to Earth if not entirely on its soil.]

[He'd gotten some leeway in the end, after weeks of endless talks, so here he is now striding into the hanger where they kept his mech, in full Count regalia. Oddly enough, he only has Terran escorts with him, and they back away well enough when he reaches his destination.

Tsukki? Oiii, I'm looking for your mechanic, Tsukishima Kei. [first he calls out, and then just outright asks someone to find Tsukki for him]

Comments

[captaincatblock]

Alas, that's what you get for taking a hidden picture. [Hah, their first date still makes him smile.]

But if you're nice, I'll let you take a new one.

[hellacene]

I can ask Kenma instead, too. I'm sure he has lots he can give me.

[he'll bribe him with a game and tips on how to escape his current level.]

[captaincatblock]

But they won't be for you. [kisses him again]

[hellacene]

I can live with that.

[come to think of it - ] Do we have a picture together? I think my brother asked me that and I told him I only had that one picture of you ....

[and then akiteru laughed at him, the jerk.]

[captaincatblock]

[Akiteru had the right to be amused by it, you should take more glorious pictures of your boyfriend, Kei.]

Here, sit down properly and let me take a photo of us. [Kuroo points out the small, discreet camera on top of the monitor -- which he tugs over on its wire to place -- and smiles. The photo appears on the leftmost screen, although it comes out as a video. Kuroo has to poke and prod at it (virtual touch screen, tada!) to get the video to take a photo in the first place.]

[hellacene]

[sighs as he sits better on his lap so it can take a nice photo of him and kuroo. at the end of it, he leans his head beside kuroo's, hands wrapped around his own for the camera. he's not exactly smiling, but .... he looks incredibly fond of him.]

[captaincatblock]

[Kuroo makes sure to get some of their view of the stars in the frame, so that the context of the photo is better understood ("otherwise, it would be weird if people think we're just cramming ourselves into the Arcadia for nothing"), and then very quickly, fingers flying, he sends the photo to the Tsukishima tablet.]

[hellacene]

[after the photo, he murmurs,] .... they'd love that.

[gets back to drinking his hot chocolate and eating the rest of the strawberries.] My mom's starting to make an album again, apparently.

[captaincatblock]

[He takes a photo of Tsukki eating as well.]

Like the one with your childhood photographs? That sounds nice.

[hellacene]

[he just nods at that, not even caring that kuroo took a photo of him eating.] I don't have a lot growing up, so she wants me to take some photos. I keep forgetting, though. I'm not really one for pictures.

[captaincatblock]

I remember. That's all right, I'll take a lot of photos of you for them. [Starting now. The third one might be misconstrued as lewd, though, since he manages to catch Tsukki mid-bite.]

[hellacene]

I was going to eat that.

[now he only has a small piece. thanks kuroo.

on the other hand he's probably taking too many pictures starting now, so he tells him as well:] Don't take too many, Kuroo.

[captaincatblock]

Only a little, promise. [He'll take a final photo, and then he puts away the camera obediently.] See? All gone.

[hellacene]

Good.

[they spent a bit more time in the arcadia just catching up and generally talking and making out, until someone - yaku - calls them back in the comms wondering if they ever plan on going back to the castle still or if they're just going to wander in space forever.]

Sorry. [he then turns to kuroo - ] If we hurry back, we can watch a movie or something with everyone else.

[captaincatblock]

Jurassic Park? Alien? [Alas, his movie tastes are now from that era. Kuroo puts the basket and thermos away, looks to see if anything floating can damage the machine, and starts flying the Arcadia back to the castle. It's mostly autopilot at this point, but he's watching out for debris.]

[hellacene]

If you want, though I brought some new ones. [he makes a face.] I figured they'd like to watch some animation and the like. Meanwhile, my mom wanted me to take the karaoke.

[captaincatblock]

Karaoke? The singing thing, that the soldiers in your base had. [Because Japan.]

I think that would destroy the landing castle, Yamamoto sings like he's trying to crash the Aldnoah Drive. [dryly] But we can watch anything.

[hellacene]

It's a good social activity. [he says it dryly.] Though it doesn't fit your image, doesn't it .... then again, you're a Count who's traveling with a Stegosaurus and a couple of blankets in the Arcadia.

[captaincatblock]

My image is one of non-conformance among the Counts, anyway. [just as wry] I might as well have fun with it and do things like, I don't know, take on a Terran lover and watch dinosaur movies.

[hellacene]

Things will be rather boring otherwise. [a tilt of the head as he considers it .... ] I wouldn't mind if you were more formal, but things would've been a lot more awkward if we'd started like that.

[captaincatblock]

Kei, we started out with me as your prisoner of war. I don't think we were fated to have a normal relationship from the start.

[hellacene]

[shoves him gently.]

I was more of a caretaker, and I never considered you as my prisoner. There was some room in it to be normal, no matter how difficult it was.

[captaincatblock]

You captured my heart from the start. [pats his chest over where his heart should be as if to demonstrate.] But I understand what you mean. We'll have our room to be normal here, too, don't worry. Generally, what goes on in our landing castles are none of other people's business.

[hellacene]

[punches the hand over his heart.] You're disgustingly sappy.

[they arrive in good time within the castle. he lets yamamoto know he'd like to watch movies with everyone. for the most part he brought a ton of movies with him with monsters and animals, and a couple of popular horror films. yamamoto tells him he'll have the perfect setup ready and will tell the kitchen to make a ton of popcorn and thanks tsukki profusely for bringing with him stuff from earth.]

Movies sort of .... slowed down in terms of production and release during the war, and a lot of them of course are full of propaganda. [he makes a face.] But there are nice ones. It's just a matter of keeping an eye on them around the net.

[captaincatblock]

I think I'll leave that to you. When I tried to watch some on my own, I ended up with some truly horrific stuff. [Yamamoto's setup apparently involves setting up a screen in the mess hall, one of those very large, wide ones like you can find in the control room. It's mostly just glass, so it's not too heavy, but Kuroo still wonders where Yamamoto stole that from.]

[The benches and chairs are bolted down, but a few of them have been moved to clear and border a space in the middle for people to sit down. Some people have brought pillows and blankets. You can tell some people have been watching sitcoms from the 80s by their general expectation of what a movie night should be.]